Interpreting job in the Garda Station

Hi everyone,

On Sunday, I had a viewing with Guoda for a room to rent in Dublin 9. Suddenly I got a call from our agency for an interpreting job for the Garda. As I was in Dublin 9 and the Garda Station, where I had to be, in Dublin 6, they decided to pick me up. The two Gardaí came in a normal car but when I went into the car they said that we were a bit in a hurry, they turned on the siren and the blue light and we drove about 15 minutes to the Garda Station in Terenure. I was really fascinated but I didn’t dare to say a word because I thought that it would seem unprofessional. The two Gardaí were really nice to me. I was very nervous but they talked a lot with me and they told me some stories, so that my nervousness slowly fade away.

When we arrived at the Garda Station one of the Gardaí gave me some background information about the case. It was a young woman who wanted to take legal action against her housemate because he sexually assaulted her. I told the Gardaí that it could be difficult for me to translate everything because this is not the day-to-day vocabulary that I use. But again, he was very nice and he said even if we had to use Google translate, as long as we could translate everything, it was okay.

We went to a little room where the victim and a detective were. The young woman spoke English very well but they wanted to make sure that they understood everything correctly.

We went through the whole story and the Gardaí asked for every detail. Sometimes it was hard to listen to that story because it was a serious offence and the young woman was emotionally unstable but she did very well and when we were finished after four hours she was relieved. As she spoke English very well I only had to clarify some words and I had to translate the attack. After we finished, one of the Gardaí brought home the woman and the other one took his time for me and asked me if I were okay or if I wanted to speak about what I had heard. I think they normally don’t do that but as I’m quite young he wanted to make sure that I won’t have to think about it too much and that was very kind of him. We spoke for a while and then he brought me back to the city.

Again, it was a very interesting experience!

Kind regards, Céline